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Sunday, March 15, 2015

Disoriented

Every March I get more and more frazzled. I'm disoriented, the days fly by without me even digesting meals, I have trouble remembering significant events from even five days ago. People ask me what the weather is going to be like or whether I heard about a particular news item and I squint at them like I've been living in a cave for 20 years.

I try to function like normal, craft a halfway decent post amid the chaos everywhere and get little for the effort.

The first decade of this century is filled with cards like this. Shiny cardboard with photos as an afterthought. If this was cards when I was a kid, I wouldn't be collecting today. I'd be playing video games on my phone. It all makes sense now doesn't it?

You know what I miss? Players with curls. Remember when Taylor Swift wasn't the only one allowed to have curly hair? Players specifically requested giant perms and then tried to squish a cap over it.

I miss that. Even the outfield wall has curly hair.

Now this is hair grown by a man who is obviously jealous of his dog's droopy ears.

At the risk of starting another collection that I have no time to manage, I really like Buffalo Bisons cards. Especially Bisons cards from the '80s, but any are fun. I miss going to that park. Got to get back there soon.

Look closely at this card. Doesn't it look like it was taken during monsoon season? the dirt road is covered in muddied foot prints, there's a misty haze in the background. I think it's time to take cover.

It's a shame this card had to be cropped down to 2 1/2-by-3 1/2 dimensions. With the guys in the background, this could have been a stellar baseball photo. Still pretty good. Particularly for '92 Donruss.

I wish Steve Stone could be as cool now as he looked on his baseball cards.

One of the major reasons why I don't follow the NBA -- I'm sure I've mentioned this before -- is the game looks to easy for the players. They're so big and talented that I get the impression the court needs to be longer and the baskets higher. I almost had the same feeling about baseball in the late '90s when everyone was mashing home runs like they were playing in a Little League park.

I don't feel the same way now about baseball, but there are certain players where the equipment seems almost unnecessary. Steve Balboni in this photo, for example. Does he really need a bat?

Recent players who died too soon, I'm embarrassed to say, sometimes I forget they're gone. But I'll never get over Lyman Bostock.

Why oddballs should always exist. Try to find a Topps card of Hank Aguirre in a Dodgers uniform. You can't.

I always wonder how many times it gets caught in stuff.

Remember that post I did on "Seinfeld" and cards that fit with themes from the sitcom? I had this card in mind for the episode when George wanted to name his kid "7" after Mickey Mantle. And then I completely forgot to use the card.

Topps insisted on calling Boyd by his given name while other companies went with what everyone called him "Oil Can". I always wondered if this is what caused Topps to finally snap and suddenly label Tim Raines "Rock" on his cards.

Craig Biggio leapt over Barry Bonds in the Hall of Fame vote two months ago. If this blog was a little more topical I would've used this two months ago.

I think Topps has dispensed with some of the meaningless "themes" it has used with its sets. Those themes would expand to the back of players' cards with how many home runs they were away from 700 or something nobody ever wondered.

What about putting the date of every player's major league debut on the card back? That would be useful, interesting and not difficult to find.

Finally, I have carried out on my thoughts to create a special area devoted solely to the cards that I pulled during my first year of buying cards in 1975. I decided to make it a blog of its own.

I haven't gotten very far with it, just a couple of cards and only the basic framework of a template, but if you want to check it out, there you go. I'll add more to it when I have time and attach a link on this blog.

Yeah, even during this very disorienting month I'm trying to get something done.

Just don't ask me what the weather is going to be like tomorrow. I'll have no idea.

I can appreciate how beat up those 75s look. My first real set was 1977 -- I was 5 years old, mind you -- so the 1977s I have that were mine originally and not obtained later look something close to what you'd expect cards mangled/handled by a 5-year-old to look like. Fun stuff, as always.

Best thing about that Travis d'Arnaud card? He never played for the Bisons nor wore the uniform. The Mets had moved their AAA franchise to Las Vegas by the time he was playing in the organization (alright, let's be honest; the Mets were shunned by the Bisons for being so awful for so long and Vegas was the only AAA city left for them). Always wondered about that one. I mean, you know, Zack Wheeler is in that set airbrushed into a Las Vegas uni, so its not like they didn't know about the move before their deadline. I guess Topps really likes Buffalo Bisons cards, too.

Regarding Sean Doolittle's beard, and getting caught in stuff...eh, probably not often. But it makes eating certain things very difficult. Cheese covered pasta being the first thing that springs to mind. For what it's worth, I didn't trim my beard at all from 1997-2009, so I have a pretty good idea.